Room for Improvement

When a possible remodel is on the horizon, there may be no better source of inspiration than a look or two at other people’s results.

See if any of these projects around central Ohio points you in the right direction as you plan your next move at home.

Sidings of Comfort and Joy

For practicality reasons, wood has fallen out of favor as siding material, but a house under construction in Jerome Village is using a new material that promises the look of wood with none of the maintenance issues.

The exterior of the Truberry Custom Homes house utilizes CELECT, a cellular PVC siding made by Royal Building Products. The company’s local facility is in southeast Columbus.

The Jerome Village house is one of just two in central Ohio to use CELECT, the other being a Romanelli & Hughes house in New Albany. Both are new builds, but the product has been finding its way into remodels throughout the country, says Jim Ziminski, vice president of sales for Royal Building Products.

The recyclable siding is designed to look like wood, but unlike wood, it seals out moisture through a gravity-lock system. It has interlocking joints, too, to keep it seamless – literally, as the panels lock into place in back so there are no seams – and a Kynar Aquatec finish to resist wear and tear and preclude the need for painting or staining down the road.

“The market has been searching for the newest, greatest innovation,” says Ziminski.

Roofing it

One roof that’s experiencing problems presents a big challenge, so one can only imagine the scope of the challenge posed by an entire community of aging roofs.

When condominium community the Vinings at Tuttle Crossing began having roof trouble – shingles coming off during windstorms, issues with chimneys and valleys, etc. – Feazel Inc., with offices in Westerville, was called in to work on all 256 units.

The work, which just finished in July, entailed a complete roof replacement, as wel

l as work on and replacement of drip edges, gutters, chimneys and chimney caps.

The company used Timberline High-Definition Shingles from GAF to ensure long life. Stone was removed and replaced, structural repairs were made, all-new water shields were installed, and 1 ¼-inch nails were driven in to ensure stability.

“We always nail six nails per shingle,” says Nick Warmath, vice president of commercial services for Feazel and the project manager.

When in doubt, Feazel makes a point of replacing rather than repairing, as part of an effort to make its work last longer. Chimney lashings, for instance, are sometimes not replaced, but all of the chimney lashings at the Vinings were replaced. Valleys on the roofs were closed as well, and screws and nails were used instead of caulking whenever caulking was an option; it’s better to replace a low nail than to caulk it and hope it will last, Warmath says.

More Ease, Less Breeze

Visitors to the kitchen in this Upper Arlington house may never know that, prior to this year, a sizable portion of it was once an un-air-conditioned breezeway that connected a much smaller kitchen to the garage.

Northwest Columbus-based Dave Fox Design Build Remodelers not only enclosed the space that was once the breezeway, it also put in a new hardwood floor system and replaced the roof, framing the latter to be the same height

as the interior space of the home.

A closet off the kitchen was transformed into a small dry bar that doubles as a coffee bar, with floating shelves to display glasses. Also added were cabinets and shelves from Custom Wood Products, a kitchen island and bench seating.

Most standard kitchen items in place before the remodel saw improvements. Appliances are all now stainless steel and some are concealed in an “appliance garage,” while the sink was replaced with a farmhouse sink and the window above the sink is larger.

The opening into the garage was relocated, and new steps to the door were built.

The ceiling has the ability to become a new floor system should the homeowners decide to add a room over the new kitchen space; their original goal was a two-story addition, says Bryce Jacob, vice president of Dave Fox, who designed the floor plan.

“This way, we won’t have to rip the ceiling structure out,” Jacob says.

Here Comes the Sun(room)

What started out as a kitchen island replacement at a house in Marysville evolved into a complete reworking of the sunroom and laundry room as well as the kitchen.

Prior to the remodel job by the Cabinet Maker, based in Westerville, the kitchen cabinets needed fixing and the kitchen island was not as functional as the homeowner would have liked. The laundry room was minuscule and overcrowded, while a good portion of the two-and-a-half-car garage – located right off the back of the laundry room – was unused.

Now, the formerly black-and-white kitchen has floor-to-ceiling cabinets with a rich mu

slin chocolate glazed finish, and a new, five-foot-by-six-foot island with granite countertops. The gourmet kitchen has a six-burner oven cook top, a bigger refrigerator, a pull-out drawer microwave and a double-drawer dishwasher.

The garage floor was raised to be level with the rest of the house, and part of the garage became a larger laundry room. The old kitchen cabinets, which were still in working condition, were reinstalled in the laundry room, while the sink area was expanded and a desk area was added.

The sunroom also underwent a significant expansion, opening up the living space, and an 11-foot-long knotty alder bench was added under the windows for seating at the table.

“When we took the walls out, it made … the sunroom almost twice as big (visually),” says Joe DeCenzo, Cabinet Maker owner.